W3C Rolls Out New XML Test Suite

The World Wide Web Consortium Wednesday released a conformance test suite for XML systems.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Wednesday released a conformance test suite for XML systems.
The suite, known as the "XML 1.0 (Second Edition) W3C Conformance Test Suite," was developed in cooperation with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and enables developers to test an XML system for conformance with W3Cs XML 1.0 standard.

The test suite was formerly hosted by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). The test suite contains more than 2000 test files and provides a set of metrics for determining conformance to the XML 1.0 Recommendation. Both W3Cs XML Core Working Group and OASIS XML Conformance Technical Committee have contributed test cases.

"XML is the result of years of effort on the part of many people who came to W3C to build it together," said Liam Quin, W3Cs XML Activity Lead in a statement. "That same collaborative spirit and expertise now provides developers with an extensive XML Test Suite, which conforms to the current XML 1.0 Recommendation."
According to NIST, the test suite has received the support of the XML community and software vendors. "The XML developers community has made frequent use of the XML Test Suite since we published the first version in 1999," said Mark Skall, chief of the Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division at NIST. "Its clear from the feedback we receive from both individual developers and companies that an effective test suite can drive conformant applications and enhanced interoperability."
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Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.